Are you weary of the endless discussion about whether the sales funnel is dead, or not? Or what shape it is? Or what it's called (aka marketing funnel, content funnel, buyer's journey, customer lifecycle)? Or which one is superior to the other?
I am.
You see, it doesn't matter what you call the process, how you depict it, or how you track, test, measure, or analyze the results.
That's because sales funnels vary in shape, size, twists, turns, and length. No two will be the same because each one focuses on a unique tribe. Watch Seth Godin below as he talks at TED about tribes:
As Seth points out, your business is about improving someone's personal or professional life in some way. Doing that means finding a tribe that's disconnected but already has a shared need or yearning. A tribe that needs a leader who takes them to the "promised land."
So tell stories and make it easy for them to connect so they connect to still more like-minded people. Until one day you're leading a movement and movements are what create change. And change can be about market leadership.
Tribes and Your Sales Funnel
When viewed in the context of a "sales funnel," the process needs to be adaptable. Your sales funnel should help people self-identify (opt-in) as members of your tribe. You offer them information and solutions that answer their yearning (content marketing). You provide ways (social media) to help them bond and connect with each other. Now they feel they're part of a tribe that reflects who they are and what they believe. Think Apple fanboys, Hells Angels and other Harley-Davidson motorcycle gangs.
Such tribes go beyond sharing their use of a product. These tribes reflect a lifestyle and set of beliefs and attitudes that transcend those products. Imagine. Attorneys, CPAs, and doctors share a common interest with renegade motorcycle gangs. Surprising, isn't it?
Harley-Davidson celebrated its 110th Anniversary in 2012. There were events in 11 countries with hundreds of thousands of people! Five million fans like H-D's Facebook page. One hundred thousand people per day post/comment/like! Consider the insights and benefits H-D gets from this activity. All because H-D leads these "misfit" groups of people in a shared experience steeped in seeking the freedom of the open road.
Your Sales Funnel Is A Recruitment Process
Start treating your sales funnel as a recruitment process. With building blocks that move and reconfigure based on how your ideal tribe changes and adapts to its environment. Designed well, it flexes so it's ready to:
- Provide the information your tribe seeks
- When your tribe members choose to find it
- Placed where they usually look
- Delivered in a format they enjoy
- With rich, engaging, high quality content they can use immediately.
Designing an efficient sales funnel is easy once you understand your buyer's decision-making process. A funnel that addresses the major factors that influence her. Factors that only the best marketers dig to understand because it isn't easy (or quick) to do:
- Core motivations
- Deepest desires
- Biggest dreams
- Greatest pains
- Toughest problems/challenges
- Best opportunities
- Biases
- Expectations
- Beliefs
- Assumptions
Our job is to understand these critical emotional, underlying, hidden factors. Because those factors drive their choices. These factors provide the colors and lenses through which your ideal buyer perceives the world and her options.
That action could be whether to go to the gym today, play hooky from work, mix a pitcher of margaritas for guests, or take a nap. This fundamental psychological process is NOT DEAD. It will only die when our species ceases to exist (which given global climate change could be sooner than we think).
You can't ignore the psychological decision-making process that results in action or no action. This is at the core of every "funnel" regardless of what you call it or how you've designed it.
A sales funnel (or whatever you choose to call it), is an attempt to capture and leverage this psychological process in a meaningful way that results in a desired action.
In my next post, we'll examine the psychological process from a pragmatic, actionable point of view. Stay tuned...
Related Articles:
- Optimizing Your Sales Funnel, Part 3; Test, Track, Analyze, Act!
- Optimizing Your Marketing Funnel, Part 2
- How to Optimize Your Marketing Funnel, Part 1
